In this article I want to share my experience with Twitter.

I love to explore new fields and I was wondering how good is the social marketing that people are trying to do. I read a book with tips on how you can improve your twitter experience and how easy it is to drive traffic to your site with a short post of 140 characters.

In the book there was an example how the author get 20-30 visits to his site from just one post when he has about 1000 followers. OK… I started to think – if I have 3k followers then I can have 100 visitors to my site with just one post.

Sounds great, right?

And here comes the experiment… I’m web developer and I thought I should try making a tool that is twitter-related. Obviously when I try to pull traffic from twitter I should make a tool or share information that is targeted to these users.

So I made a small tool where you enter your twitter details and it displays a map of your twitter followers. It is a visual representation of the locations of the user’s followers.

In this tool I used the twitter API to pull the list of followers and then I put pins on Google map (this is the tool: http://friendloc.webily.com/).

It is free tool and I don’t have anything put on this page to generate leads or any attempts for monetization of the traffic. It is just an experiment for now… so… let’s see the results.

I have more than 2k followers on twitter and I posted 2 updates about this tool. I made these posts in the most active time on twitter. Actually this is what I supposed is the most active time – the evenings in USA, because most of my followers are Americans.

From these 2 posts I have total of 12 visitors to the site. Not a great result, but I suppose it can be improved if I’m more active on twitter. You see… you need to establish connection with your followers and bring really valuable (and mostly free) information. And you should chat with them more actively. I love twitter and I find really great information and resources from the post of the twitters I follow. When I love the posting I try to thank the poster and build a relationship… I discuss the resource shared with him and this is a kind of becoming friend with this particular user.

If you make lot of friends there probably your results will be better.

So try to give valuable information, try to interact more with your followers and you’re on the right path to drive targeted traffic to your site.

And just a quick comparison with the other traffic sources I used:

Digg – 30 visitors in a month;

ViralNetworks (post in the forum) – 20 visits in a month;

LinkedIn (news posting in 2 groups with about 1 mln members) – 18 visits in 2 days;

StumbleUpon – 10 visits in 1 week;

Facebook (I have less than 200 friends there) – 7 visits in a month.

I think LinkedIn performs best from these social sites I tried.

Total of 133 unique visitors in a month.  Not a great result, but for the time spent (1 hour to build the tool and 10-15 minutes to post on the social sites) I think it is not bad. If you write an article in 10 minutes and drive this traffic it is great. 10 articles in a month and you have 1000 visitors. If you manage to monetize this traffic then… this is the way to make money on the internet.

Hope you find my experiment and the results useful.

Thanks for reading and wish you luck!

When thinking of starting a network marketing business, you will need a business plan just as any other type of business if you hope to make it successful. It is more than the often believed three part strategy of starting a business, get rich, retire young. While that may happen one in 100,000 times, you will have to be extremely lucky to see it happen to you.

To begin to create a marketing strategy, you will need to decide on the type of business, or businesses, you hope to market as well as the target market you hope to hit. Knowing the product or service is a great first step in establishing yourself as a knowledgeable force on your way to success.

Write out your plan and what position you want to find yourself in the short and long term as well as how you plan to reach those goals. Since many network marketing efforts involve affiliate marketing you will need to discover which companies will accept pay for performance advertising and how to best leverage yourself as a leader in the market. You will also want to plan on whom to recruit to help you with your efforts.

Plan to grow your business slowly and avoid the allure of quick profits because chances are they will not materialize anyway and it reduces the chance of failure. As your home base network marketing company grows, mark off the goals you set as you reach them and when you see yourself growing faster than planned, adjust your goals to a level that will have you reaching higher than you initially thought was possible.

Get involved in the affiliate marketing program of your choice that offers the best method of reaching higher goals and then teach others how you have accomplished all that you have, This will help ensure their success as well as increasing your future income from their efforts as well as your own and plan to recruit others into your business. When they have been firmly trained and are working successfully, work with them to recruit additional people to help them more money, as well as improving your own standard of living.

You can also use your proven network marketing strategy to create additional streams of income to better diversify your income in case something should happen to the first. You will never be without an income source as long as you maintain diversity in your business.

Network marketing has no large capital investment, no quotas on production and you are not limited to a certain country. There are also tax advantages to a home based business, not to mention the additional income that everyone can find useful.

Zappia most recently worked for a networking marketing firm in Las Vegas, Nevada. Prior to that he owned and operated Simme’s Martini Bar & Restaurant in Lancaster, New York. Zappia attended Medaille College in Buffalo.

“Don’s been a great addition to our staff. He brings a lot of energy to the table and has a passion for the value DirectBuy brings to our members lives,” said Mark Klinger, owner of DirectBuy of Buffalo.

As a marketing manager, Zappia’s responsibilities include oversight of the phone room marketing efforts, lead generation and lead follow up.

“DirectBuy brings an entirely new way to shop for thousands of people and I’m extremely excited to help more people discover the unique opportunity DirectBuy offers,” said Zappia, a Buffalo resident. “Not only do we help people save, but this is a really fun place to work. Mark is a great boss and the people here really do make it a pleasure to come to work everyday.”

Married, Zappia resides in Amherst with his wife Lori.

Since 1971,  DirectBuy has helped consumers enjoy enormous savings on home furnishings, home improvement items, entertainment and outdoor products, and accessories, by providing an avenue to purchase directly from the manufacturer. Conveniently located at 4950 Genesee Street in Cheektowaga, New York, DirectBuy offers members a comfortable setting, where they finally have the financial control of buying direct.

For more information on a DirectBuy membership, you can call 716-684-1400 or visit

www.directbuy-buffalo.com.

About DirectBuy

Since 1971, DirectBuy has helped hundreds of thousands of families enjoy a better quality of life, enabling them to buy directly from more than 700 manufacturers and their authorized suppliers. Buying direct makes members’ hard-earned money to go much further, while having the selection and choice not available at any retail store. DirectBuy has been serving the greater Buffalo area since 2005. Access to confidential prices, local suppliers, and unparalleled selection helps make members’ dream projects a reality.  It’s a comfortable setting, where you finally have the financial control of buying direct. DirectBuy of Buffalo is one of more than 160 DirectBuy showrooms throughout North America.

Consumers interested in becoming members may obtain a Visitor’s Pass to attend an Open House by contacting DirectBuy at 716-684-1400, or visiting www.DirectBuy-Buffalo.com.

To learn more about the superior value and benefits of a DirectBuy membership, visit www.directbuycares.com.